Elizabeth Gilbert was born in Waterbury, Connecticut on July 18, 1969. She received an undergraduate degree in political science from New York University. After college, she spent several years traveling around the country, working odd jobs and writing short stories. Early in her career, she also worked as a journalist for such publications as Spin, GQ and The New York Times Magazine. An article she wrote in GQ about her experiences bartending on the Lower East Side eventually became the basis for the movie Coyote Ugly. She writes both fiction and nonfiction and her books include the short story collection Pilgrims, Stern Men, The Last American Man, and Committed. Her memoir Eat, Pray,… Love, was adapted into a movie starring Julia Roberts and led to Time Magazine naming her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2008. In 2010 Gilbert wrote the follow-up book to Eat, Pray, Love which she entitled, Committed: A Sceptic Makes Peace with Marriage.